What Does Your Bible Say About You?

We all know that the Bible speaks to the universal human condition.  It says a lot about each one of us but what does your Bible say about you - your actual physical Bible?  I have done several funerals including one this week where the family and I went through the deceased person's  Bible for some hints about what scriptures were important.  It is a very interesting search to go through a person's Bible.

In almost every case I found a Bible that was well worn, that held fascinating markings that were important to the person.  You could tell what was meaningful to them, what was precious to them, what they loved and what they valued.  Verses well marked often bore marks on that person's life.  You could clearly make a connection from the person's Bible to the person's character.  In all these experiences it seemed to be very meaningful to the family.

So what does your Bible say about you?  Can someone pick it up and find where God was speaking to you?    Could a struggling person pick up your Bible and tell where you found direction? Could a grieving family look into it and find help and hope?  What does your Bible say about your pilgrimage?  Your parenting?  Your relationships?  Your life?

Next time you pick up your Bible, look at it and ask yourself about what it says about you.  One sure thing about Bibles - they don't lie.

Come join me as we look at what reading the Bible does to us this Sunday.

For the journey...

Tim

Reaping and Sowing in Prayer

Many of you have spent much time recently praying for Caleb Jentsch as he recovers from his traumatic brain injury.  The results have been remarkable.  Keep up the good work.  What you may not know is that this fall Caleb was strategic in praying for another college student who had a head injury.

Caleb served as a counselor at a camp for incoming freshmen this summer.  Students are assigned to a small group at the camp and the counselors keep tabs on them through the freshmen year.  One student in Caleb's small group that he got especially close to was Pierce.  Right before school started Pierce was injured in a skateboarding accident and had a severe head injury.  When Caleb got the call from Pierce's dad, Pierce was near death.  Caleb organized a prayer meeting for Pierce at his home to pray through the night, over 40 students came.  Here are Caleb's words from a letter that he sent out before his skiing accident.

"As everyone was praying I just stopped and realized that in that moment Father was receiving glory by us just meeting with him.  It was such a powerful and beautiful time of just meeting with the Lord...About 4 hours later, I received another call from Pierce's Dad saying that the bleeding in Pierce's brain was coming to a stop and he was progressing...The power of prayer works.  I told everyone at my house and we were all in awe of Father."

Pierce made a remarkable recovery and had an incredibly successful rehab.  He is in classes this spring semester.  When Pierce heard of Caleb's accident, he and his father flew to Denver to pray for and visit Caleb.  Pierce was one of the over 300 students who met in a prayer meeting for Caleb this past Monday at the Baptist Student Center at Texas A&M.  What an incredible irony?  Can it even be called that?

The Bible is clear that we will reap what we sow.  Is that true in prayer as well?  If we have prayed, led people to pray and then stand in need of prayer, do we reap some of what we have sown in prayer?  It sure seems so.  God is receiving glory in this and as Caleb wrote, "The power of prayer works."

For the journey...

Tim

Prayer - Doing vs. Becoming

I returned last night from a quick visit to Denver to see Caleb Jentsch and his family.  You can keep up best with his progress after a very serious head injury at
http://www.caringbridge.org/visit/calebjentsch

Very serious head injury hardly describes what is going on, there is so much more.  Mainly, there are answers to prayer and needs for more prayer.  We have seen Caleb's life spared, yet we do not know what kind of recovery he will have.

At a time like this so many of us (me included) want to "do" something.  We feel helpless and we want to help.  What the Jentsch's have stressed over and over is that their need in all of this, especially now, is prayer.  Too often for us prayer does not qualify as something to "do."  We want to take some sort of meaningful, direct, helpful, encouraging, impacting action.  What the Jentsch's are saying and I am learning is that prayer is "doing" something, the most needed and important something that we can "do."  Answers abound, need also abounds.

Prayer is that real and tangible thing we can "do."  But instead of looking at what we can "do" we must look at what God is "doing" and what we are "becoming."  Caleb's healing will be a long, demanding process.  In some ways, God is remaking him.  And in someways God is remaking us.  We are becoming something that we were not before. 

Will we pray?  But most importantly will we grasp the perspective that prayer is "doing" something?  In prayer, God causes us to become people who overcome.  We become people that we were not before all this happened and God "did" it. 

Would you pray for Caleb and his family in ways you may not have done before.  Get with others, initiate prayer or join with others who are praying.  We will become different people and we will become a different church if we will learn to pray and see what God can "do."

For the journey...

Tim